André Chéret

(b. 27 June 1937, France)

Rahan

André Chéret worked as a printer, before he pursued a career as an artist. He started out illustrating cinema posters, and eventually cooperated on several military magazines during his military service. Back in civil life in 1961, he began illustrating for Radar magazine and took on the comics 'Rock l'Invincible' and 'Monica, Hôtesse de l'Air' in Mireille.

A year later, he began a longtime collaboration with the magazine Vaillant. There, he took over the 'Bob Mallard' series from Francisco Hidalgo between 1963 and 1969. In addition, he drew the aviation comic 'Karl' in J2 Jeunes, as well as 'Vidocq' in Télé-Feuilleton and several short stories in Francs-Jeux.

Bob Mallard (Pif Gadget #9, 21/04/1969)

His most famous creation, the caveman 'Rahan', was launched in Pif Gadget (the former Vaillant) in 1969. The series, written by Roger Lécureux, was a big hit, and got its own periodical at the publishing house Vaillant in 1971.

Gavroche

From 1973, Chéret was also present in Tintin, with 'Domino' with text by Greg and later Jean Van Hamme. He also appeared in Les Visiteurs du Mercredi with 'Anaël' (text Sacha) and in Spirou with 'Michel Brazier' (text by Charlier).

Ly-Noock

At the publishing house Hachette, he released albums like 'Gavroche' (1983, text Jean Ollivier) and 'Yannick Noah' (1984, text Claude Gendrot). From 1982 to 1985, he cooperated on the collection 'L'Encyclopédie en Bandes Dessinées' with publisher Philippe Auzou. For the same publisher, he worked on the science-fiction series 'Proteo' with Jean-Gérard Imbar. He began the series 'Ly-Noock' with text by Rodrigue at Éditions Joker in 2003.